Ditch Your Cable Company With Free, Legal Alternatives

Ditching your cable company has never been more viable than it is today. The rise of online, streaming TV shows allows you to save on one of the most expensive household bills if you are willing to sacrifice a bit of the convenience of having either a cable box or DVR. The main question you will need to ask yourself is what shows you actually enjoy watching. Several name brand shows are now available online in free, ad supported formats; if your particular shows are not available then you may be stuck with your cable company, at least for now. More and more shows are always coming online, so keep checking back to see if your favorite show is available.

Joost, formerly known at the Venice Project, is the undertaking of the creators of Skype and Kazaa. Using P2P protocol to deliver its video, it is a free, legal video service. Joost is currently in deals with several networks including CBS, VH1, MTV, other Viacom channels as well as several other video distribution networks. Joost’s interface is one of the best around, and is meant for a ‘big screen’. It is workable via mouse, keyboard, or remote control. The strong point of Joost is it’s interface and its content that is available so far. A sampling of currently available shows:

Star Trek: The Original Series

Jericho

CSI

MacGyver

GiJoe

Several VH1 Shows

Top Fifth Gear

Punk’d

The weakness of Joost is also its content. Although there is a huge amount of content available, it is mainly niche content and is not very attractive for a large audience. Since there is so much content it is necessary to wade through much of it to find the gems. If Joost can get additional deals with other networks, it could really be the cable killer. However, since cable systems own stake in many distribution companies, I have a feeling that they are not very anxious to get their content online. Therein lies the problem – not a technical one but a political and dollars and cents problem.

Hulu is where it’s ‘at’ if you want to watch many of your favorite shows online. It is a project of NBC Universal and News Corporation and is currently in private beta. If you want me to send you an invitation I currently have 10 invites – please add your email to the comments area and I will send one off. If I have used my invites up – please use [NO LONGER WORKS] InviteShare to get an invite.

The single biggest feature and draw of Hulu is the volume of shows available. Not all content is available but a handful of currently airing shows are available to stream, as well as a multitude of ‘Clips’. Shows currently available include (but are not limited to):

The Office

Family Guy

Saturday Night Live

American Gladiators

Prison Break

The Simpsons

It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia

House

As you can see – it is an impressive offering. Hulu also allows you to embed whole shows or clips into your website in a YouTube-esq fashion.

The downside (isn’t there always one!!) is that the interface isn’t the greatest. It is pretty apparent that this is meant to be a small screen offering; you need your mouse to navigate the shows.

Hulu offers a multitude of shows and therefore in my own eyes is the best video site currently out there. They are always adding more shows and as it moves out of beta we may see more providers sign on.

3. Episodes via Network Websites

The television networks are now streaming a lot of their content onto their own individual websites. Remember the writer’s strike that recently settled? That is what it was all about – the writers were not getting a fair share of online ad revenue.

Dealing with each individual network is a pain but if you know where to look there is a lot of content available.

Miro player is technically a video player. It does not have any direct content, so you need to be able to add content to it using RSS feeds.

Using its directory there are a plethora of Video podcasts available, such as Diggnation, Tekzilla, CBS News and much more. Adding this content to Miro is easy, however shows must be downloaded before you can watch them. Miro will gladly run in the background and download new shows as they are available. However, this can quickly add up to a lot of disk space lost, so you may want to customize your settings to only keep a few shows at a time.

The Killer feature of Miro is the integrated BitTorrent client. It allows you to set up an RSS feed of episodes which it will then automatically monitor and download. One such site that offers these types of RSS feeds is tvrss.net.

So about that television provider…

As you can tell, the choices available for replacing your television provider are really getting viable. Although nothing beats plopping down in front of the television after a long hard day at work, products such as Joost almost replace your current set top box and actually Joost is rumored to be working with hardware providers on creating a Joost set top box. DVR functionality isn’t quite there yet; but with content being on-demand on many of the sites above, replacing a DVR may work for many people.

Have you already made the cut? Please let us know about your experiences with ditching your cable company!

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UPDATE 1: (Hulu Invites)

Hi folks,

My name is Christina and I work at Hulu. I noticed a bunch of readers were interested in getting Hulu beta invites. We’ve created a page at www.hulu.com/beta/makeuseof that will provide the first 500 users a Hulu beta invitation. Just submit your email address and we will send you an automated email with your temporary login and password. We hope you will enjoy!

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Chris Miller

February 16, 2008

Great article. I knew about Joost, but I never heard of hulu before. If you still have some invites left, could I snag one for hulu? With the network websites, you left out Fox. Fox allows you to view their shows a day after they air.

Bryan

February 17, 2008

Streaming TV Episodes is the best site that I’ve found for looking up where to find television shows online. It links to most of the networks full episode players. The site also has many TV episodes from HULU available for those of you that don’t have HULU accounts. Sorry I’ve no HULU invites though :/

Nate

Dave Drager

Maniok

Maniok

February 17, 2008

Well those are all fine but Joost is not worth your time, Miro is overrated, Hulu is great but it’s only for US (they don’t update as often as I’d like). Plus these aren’t real cable alternatives, they’re not live most you just have to hope that your show becomes available and you have to watch right then and there (as in 2 days to watch it before it gets deleted)

I highly recommend (because it’s free) FreeTube( http://www.freetube.us.tc ), it’s a more realistic cable solution, lets you watch certain TV channels in live video. So you can watch CNN or NBC as it airs – again you have to catch the schedules and watch what’s on at that point but at least you’re not left wondering whether it’s going to work or not and it’s not geo-restricted. All you need is windows media player or quicktime or an alternative plugin.

There are a few bugs to it, like there’s no schedules yet but it definitely works great.

Bryan

January 14, 2009

Dave, can I get an invite sir, thank you, Bryan.

Amber

March 26, 2009

oh please, can I have a hulu invite…I also need instructions! Im a total Non-techy. I heard that you can hook it up to your television as well, is this true? How do you do it?

gerri

February 17, 2008

hi,
can i get a invite to that web site hulu please
my email adderss is BOOTS507@GMAIL.COM
thank you,
Gerri

rpowe

Dave Drager

Chris

Zach

February 17, 2008

Way back when I first signed on with suscom it wasn’t to bad, but when my bills started approaching a hundred dollars a month for cable internet and tv I called it quits. I have tried joost but wasn’t impressed. I have been looking to get in on Hulu since I heard about it and would appreciate an invite if you’ve got another to spare. Awesome and concise article thanks Dave.

-Zach

Dave Drager

February 17, 2008

Invitation sent – I’m all out of Invites now! Thanks for the interest everyone. Please use Inviteshare to try to get invited to Hulu or any other of the private beta websites.

Maniok

nathan gathright

Duncan

February 17, 2008

If one doesn’t count those already with accounts (and I’m tallying correctly as well), then there should be one invite left, which I’d really appreciate one as I’ve ditched cable due to cost here in SF and NBC broadcasts very poorly out of San Jose so I’m missing the shows that you wrote are available via Hulu. (I.e. Not to just “try out”, but to use fully and evangelize!)

Ashutosh Mishra

Scott

February 17, 2008

Another one to mention is TVU Networks and its Broadcasting ability. You can have your own channel to stream whatever shows you want, or you could just get the player and check out all the other channels out there.

pages.tvunetworks.com

Matt Alexander

February 18, 2008

TVU Player is what I use. 24/7 Real time Comedy Central, sports channels, SpikeTV, …

Jon

Henk

February 17, 2008

Hi,

Ditched my cable subscription almost a year ago. Stopped watching tv almost two years before that. Bought a Mac mini, hooked it up to the tv. Subscribed to a sh*t load of podcasts and since then: never a dull moment. I’m off cable for good (or as long as podcasts stay this spontaneous and fun as opposed to scripted crap on cable).

Henk.

motech

February 17, 2008

with apple tv we are very close to this reality . . .
i mean im paying close to 130$ a month for TV . .
soo. . . im sure i can pay itunes less and get away with more . .

Daniel

T

John

February 17, 2008

I know its not free, but Netflix offers unlimited online streaming for over 5000 shows and movies. As long as you have the one out at a time unlimited you can stream everything you want and they are adding stuff all the time.

Gregg Sewell

Jonathanq

Monk3yPunk

February 17, 2008

hey, thank for the article that awesome and i think these are amazing altenatives, i’ll probably end up ditching my cable, also can anyone please send me an invite to Hulu at pirat3monk3y@gmail.com thanks.

Christina

February 17, 2008

Hi folks,

My name is Christina and I work at Hulu. I noticed a bunch of readers were interested in getting Hulu beta invites. We’ve created a page at http://www.hulu.com/beta/makeuseof that will provide the first 500 users a Hulu beta invitation. Just submit your email address and we will send you an automated email with your temporary login and password. We hope you will enjoy!

Javiwankenobi

February 17, 2008

You can put a stop to my boredom!! Please PLEAASE an invite to javiwankenobi@hotmail.com I need it more than anybody in here, see, i dont even have a cable company to diss… I just moved in and have no cable. PLEASE, PLEASE

Benjamin

Trendsettr

Jayman

February 17, 2008

I dumped my cable provider almost a year ago and I will never go back. We get Netflix and have seen all the great series that we’ve missed because we could not afford HBO/SHOWTIME and all the other providers. Now we just set up the que. We finished Dexter and are on Weeds. We’ve gone through all the Star Gate series. For regular broadcasts we have an antenna. We get 7 channels, but they compliment Netflix perfectly. PBS, ABC, NBC and a few other locals. My only regret is that I can’t get the local Fox affilate (well, that and the History Channel.) I’m considering using a small dish (that’s already attached to the house) and grabbing the free sat Fox LA affilate.
The only thing is: I can’t get rid of the Cable completely. I need something for internet and the phone company wants to own my cell, plus wants me to have a land line which I don’t need.
Well, I’m off to watch some commercial free TV.

James

Brett

February 18, 2008

Don’t need to replace cable till sites on the internet get better quality than TV. i only found ABC’s Lost to be shown in HD. until all the other places get on that. ill stick to the guaranteed quality of TV.

stephanie

me

Shreela

February 19, 2008

I got mine, I think from InviteShares. Either my security/greasemonkey/noscript settings are messing with InviteShares, or I’m not smart enough to figure out how to send invites through InviteShares, because I can’t click on an email address to send out invites. It gives me a confirm button instead, which I can’t confirm at that time since I haven’t sent one out.

I can’t highlight the email addresses to copy them either (probably a good thing for spam control, but darn). So I manually typed a few addresses into Tbird to send out some GrandCentral invites, but I’m not into that much trouble in order to send out invites to Hulu.

So, take my comment nick, add gmail.com to it, and I’ll send it that way until I’m out.

Jason Nunez

Val

February 19, 2008

Good article. I have been without cable for about 2 years. Currently I am paying $20 a month for internet which is great and saving me some cash. I get the main channels with an antenna (in HD), but I hardly ever watch my favorite shows when they air b/c I hate commercial. I download or watch them online and it has worked great for me. While the content I download isn’t the greatest quality I can still watch it on my tv via streaming it to my xbox360 plus I don’t have to sit through commercials. I also use most of the other services like Joost, but I have yet to try HULU, but would love to give it a try. If anyone has an invite they are willing to part with I would love to try it out. Email: val_molina8420@yahoo.com

Ben

Tyler Poole

February 19, 2008

I currently use the rss feeds from tvrss.net and eztv.it and a bittorrent client to completely replace my cable. Hard drive space is not too big of an issue so i tend to manually delete the shows that i will never watch again. Its been working out great for me so far but i will definitely check out Hulu and FreeTube.

Chris Wilson

sun

Jeremiah

February 25, 2008

I don’t quite see the stronger advantage in this live streaming or online viewing. I actually thought the title of the subject suggested that there was a cable connection alternative that perhaps decodes or unblocks network channels that are basically free in specific states as opposed to cable paid for cause it’s not syndicated. it was my own dream. But this is rather an cool evolution to a revolution in watching your favorite programs. As it is obvious these sites will become better over time and get more programs that are popular to viewers to be seen by it’s subscriber’s; I like the idea of it. It still is a movement in itself and i would like to be a part of it. scount me in fellas im all about beatin the machine.

John

John

John

Sue

May 17, 2008

Hi I just have a question. Why is everyone asking for an invite to hulu? I just went to the site ans signed up. Does getting an invite get your special privileges as opposed to just signing up on the site? Any answers are appreciated

Tina

May 17, 2008

Thist post was published in February. Hulu has probably opened up to the public in the meantime.

Easy, No-Fuss Setup!
Simply plug-in your Flash memory drive or SD card (not included) into one of the two available USB ports or SD card slot and connect the MediaPlay XMS to your TV or projector and also no PC required!

Patrick

Ami

Derek

Jodi

October 14, 2009

Would love invite…Would also like more information about getting tv content without the cable bill…just cut it out….was over $200….way too much….I have been using fancast for most of my shows and then heading to lifetime for the others…been ok for now, but would like more alternatives which do not require me to be a computer programmer… Thanks everyone!!

Joe

Chris

February 12, 2010

There is a new site http://www.thetvking.com which provides links to a variety of TV episodes that are legal free to watch online in both the US and the UK. Links for site in Canada and Australia will be coming soon. So for a show like Heores there are links to watch the show in the UK on the BBC Iplayer or in the US through HULU or Fancast. The site also has links to YouTube shows which has episodes from 4OD and Demand Five in the UK. The US network site TheCW has been added with ABC, NBC, FOX and others coming soon.